Recent studies have been conducted that compare forums to communication channels that seem to have similarities to a forum.
For instance, there have been studies on mailing lists [1]}, [2]},
question and answer sites (Stack Overflow) [3]}, [4]}, [5]}, [6]},
Microblogs [7]}, [8]}, and
News aggregators [9]}.
Kahani et al. analyzed discussion topics using a topic modeling technique [10]}.
Squire studied the transition from self-supported forums to Stack Overflow [11]}.
It has been reported that generic question and answer platforms such as Stack Overflow have taken over the roles of forums.
For instance, many software development projects had closed their self-supported forums and moved to Stack Overflow [11]}.
Furthermore, gamification strategies such as awarding of badges or a voting system of Stack Overflow are considered to be incentives designed to participate and improve answer quality [11]}.
